Bikes and road tax.

callmeBadger

callmeBadger

callmeBadger

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Does it nark any one else of when you follow a cyclist all the way a,ong a road, becose they think they have the right to cycle down the middle of the road, just to get to a set of traffic lights, when they suddenly decide to be a pedestraian and jump up on the pavement, use the crossing to over the junction, then get back on the road.

Or the ones which seem to spend all there time telling you they have just as equal rights to use the roads and don't need to move over. We (drivers) pay road tax, cyclists don't.
 
Does the cyclist dismount, or continue cycling?

Without dismounting, they are liable to a £20 fixed penalty (as they would be for not having relfectors, lights or a helmet)

Either way - your car gives me bronchitis and emphysema.
 
callmeBadger said:
Does it nark any one else of when you follow a cyclist all the way a,ong a road, becose they think they have the right to cycle down the middle of the road, just to get to a set of traffic lights, when they suddenly decide to be a pedestraian and jump up on the pavement, use the crossing to over the junction, then get back on the road.
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Heh, must say I've done that. I wanted to turn right, had to be in the right lane to do so, so had to stop hugging the side of the road for about 50m.

In my defence guv, it's a cycle lane I hopped onto as well as being a pedestrian pavement. But why should I sit and wait for green if the pedestrian crossings start pinging, and there's no pedestrians?

EDIT: I also drive and there really are some cyclists that need to realise how irritating/dangerous they are with respect to cars. Mind you there are a lot of drivers who should try cycling during rush hour once in their lives.

EDIT2: There's no law for helmets. There is however a law for rear reflectors, pedal reflectors and lights (front and rear) at night.
 
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I'd say cyclists do have an equal right to use the road, but obviously not being stupid like biking in the middle of the road all the time. There are cases when you have to get in to the middle of the road to make a right turn fairly early due to cars sticking to your back wheel not allowing you to pull out without cutting them up and the cyclist ending up in several pieces across the road, however.

Didn't realise the bit about the £20 fine for lack of helmet?

I can't see why you'd get annoyed about them skipping junctions though, surely you'd be happy that you don't have to pull away behind the cyclist?
 
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Doesn't bother me in the slightest, as long as he's not endangering pedestrians. Get over it, you're just fed up because you're sitting in traffic and he's making progress.
 
Cycling through traffic in town is ace, because things like red lights are merely advisory. The power!!

What annoys me as a cyclist (and a driver) is drivers dithering and getting in the way.
 
sara said:
Heh, must say I've done that. I wanted to turn right, had to be in the right lane to do so, so had to stop hugging the side of the road for about 50m.

In my defence guv, it's a cycle lane I hopped onto as well as being a pedestrian pavement. But why should I sit and wait for green if the pedestrian crossings start pinging, and there's no pedestrians?

EDIT: I also drive and there really are some cyclists that need to realise how irritating/dangerous they are with respect to cars. Mind you there are a lot of drivers who should try cycling during rush hour once in their lives.

EDIT2: There's no law for helmets. There is however a law for rear reflectors, pedal reflectors and lights (front and rear) at night.
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think you find cyclist arnt dangerous to cars but other way round
 
Got stuck behind some cyclists the other day. They were in a huge group about 10 bikes long and 4 wide! So annoying! Shame they got a face full of diesel smoke when I was past :D
 
D18241 said:
think you find cyclist arnt dangerous to cars but other way round
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That's why I said 'with respect to cars' rather than 'to cars'. Some cyclists seem to forget that getting in the way of a car hurts, and that people in cars can get spooked and swerve if you weave too close.

From experience, as a driver you've got to assume bikes to be unpredictable (though TBH if you see a helmeted cyclist dressed in yellow on a road/racer bike covered in lights - (s)he's going to be fairly predictable and careful), and as a cyclist you have to assume no drivers have seen you, and any one of them is likely to open a door or pull out on you at any time.

The cyclist will always be worse off in an accident - but it's also harder to stop a bike really quick without falling off it, so cars really ought to give way to them. But luckily cyclists can swerve a lot more easily, seeing as cars generally don't.
 
Anyway in London the two wheels good, four wheels bad rule applies. Anyone daft enough to sit in traffic day after day is a mug if you ask me :D
 
callmeBadger said:
Or the ones which seem to spend all there time telling you they have just as equal rights to use the roads and don't need to move over. We (drivers) pay road tax, cyclists don't.
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We do have equal rights to it, so ner!

I do the things you mention in your post.

I jump from pavement to road to pavement to road to pavement all the time, I jump red lights, I hop to the pavement to cross with the green man, then back into the road, I ignore half the rules of the road... I get places quick. I don't care if it gets on your ****. :p
 
living in london it ****** me off when i drive though a green light at a crossroads or similar and have to brake or take evasive action all because some **** on a bike thinks that "things like red lights are merely advisory", are they really? or is this just a general attitude of a lot of cyclists? Surely, the lights are red for a reason??? some people crossing? or maybe, its a corssroads and there is traffic thats driving across your lane. Don't get me wrong, i do look out for cyclists and wont be impatient and endager anyone whos riding safely, but these ***** that skip lights annoy the hell out of me.

NS

Edit - just because they have a bike i dont get why people seem to think they can do what they like, i dont care if you get somewhere quicker but Mohinder for example, if i knocked you off you bike and you had multiple fracktures and blood going everywhere how the hell do you think i would feel? a combination of wanting to kick you and at the same time trying get over the fact that ive possibly just killed someone because they are stupid would be it. no offence meant to you but, why should i have to live with that for the rest of my life?
 
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Because you drive a car and therefore suck!

That's not true, of course.

If I skip a red light and get hit by a car because of it, I don't want any sympathy to be honest. I don't skip all red lights, and I don't do it full pelt. I cruise across them slowish, provided I can see there's no traffic. I don't just blitz along not stopping for anything, it's really quite unlikely I'll ever be hit by traffic in the act of doing it. I do it at lights I know quite well, when I know the pattern and it's clear, or I do it where there's no danger to me, like where there's a straight road with a road coming from the right. When I'm going along the straight road and the lights turn red letting the traffic come onto the straight road from the right, I can carry on and slip between a couple of cars while staying at the side of the road, I get in no one's way and no one's going to hit me unless they drive in the gutter. I time it so I'm between cars anyway in a situation like that, so even if they do drive in the gutter they're not gonna hit me.

And I do it all with my eyes peeled anyway, as I said I'm not daft, I'm not going to put myself in silly hairy situations.

I understand your frustrations at looney cyclists, and for the most part I'm not one. I do bend the rules, I see that as one of the advantages of riding a bike, and I know it's wrong - but on the other hand I'm not some nutcase who's a danger to himself and/or others either.
 
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Badgerpoo said:
Cycling through traffic in town is ace, because things like red lights are merely advisory. The power!!

What annoys me as a cyclist (and a driver) is drivers dithering and getting in the way.
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Ummm - since when have (legally) red lights been advisory for cyclists?
Unless you've meant a level of sarcasm in your post that I've managed to miss.

OP - I'm in agreement with you but maybe not for all of the same reasons.
Mainly because I know no matter how badly the cyclist was riding, which way down a one-way street they were travelling, no matter if they were skipping a red light or doing any other of the things they are not supposed/are allowed to do.
If I hit one of them then I'm considered the "bad guy" by everyone.

I have taken a cyclist off their bike at a junction where the lights weren't just changing to green for me - they were green, there was never any discussion on if I was jumping lights etc.
The cyclist wasn't killed or anything like that, although injured to the point where an ambulance was called for them.
You could see that every pedestrian and the police were judging me - as if I was the one at fault.
All I can say is thank god that two other motorists had seen what had happened and both gave exactly the same account in their statements and there was no further action taken by anybody.

Insult to injury after all that was the damage to my car had to be paid by me claiming under my fully comp. policy (thanks again for protected NCB).

I live quite near Cambridge, we have some of the worst cyclists in the world and I'm afraid I have no respect for any of them any more after I've seen them doing some of the things they do.
 
Well, that all came across as me hating all cyclists there when thats not true, but i dont get it, almost every cyclist in london seems to jump red lights. If i was driving along and a light turned red and i just drove thorugh cautiously, watching out for any other cars and then just slipped in im sure id get done for skipping the light, it just seems like whats not OK for cars is OK for cyclists and thats just not the way things should be, i mean nobody likes sitting at a red light when there is no reason except that somebody pressed the button and walked over before they changed or somthing but i still sit there and wait patiently/impatiently.

NS
 
callmeBadger said:
Does it nark any one else of when you follow a cyclist all the way a,ong a road, becose they think they have the right to cycle down the middle of the road,
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Nope never, I give then a good honk and they usually wobble to the edge of the road

;)
 
Done both as I used to cycle 5 miles into the centre of manc to beat the traffic - best thin abou beinf a cyclist is really p*** off drivers who decide that the bus lane is their own space - until I decide to cycle right in the middle at a speed much slower than the traffic - many a honk I got, and many a finger they got in return. What was even more stupid was this was all on the stretch past Salford Uni, right outside the cop shop(!) :rolleyes:
 
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